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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Frosty Times Call for a Frosty Dessert

Winter is almost here, at least in most parts of the U.S., so why am I writing about ice cream? This year on Thanksgiving, I served ice cream in addition to pumpkin pie. Not pumpkin pie a la mode, after all, whipped cream is the proper topping for pumpkin pie. (In the husband's case, lots and lots of whipped cream.) In our family of four, there are only two pumpkin pie eaters -- the husband and our daughter. Daughter likes it so much she has even been known to request a pumpkin pie for her month of May birthday! Our son and I, however, are not pumpkin pie fans. So when I asked him what he wanted for his Thanksgiving dessert, he asked for "that ice cream dessert."

I got the recipe for "that ice cream dessert" when we lived in the little town of Harvard, Illinois. Harvard is the end of the train line, so when we were ready to move out of our Chicago condo and into a single family house, that's where we wound up. We just kept going out until we found something decent we could afford and, before we knew it, we were at the end of the line in Harvard.

Harvard is a really small town. When we lived there, the population was around 6,000 people. It has increased since then to more than 9,000. At one time, Harvard was the center point of an area with the greatest milk production in the nation. Thus, the big event in Harvard each year is Milk Days, complete with a parade, a carnival, a Milk Queen, bed races, and big wheel races. Our daughter was in preschool when we lived there, so the big wheel race was important. She competed and lost. Our neighbor, whose daughter was the same age, put his child in training for the big wheel race. I am not making this up. He took his four-year-old daughter to an empty parking lot several times before the race for training. She won her age category. In a couple of years, she was entered in the Milk Days Princess competition and eventually was crowned Milk Queen. So I suppose that early training paid off.

The logo my husband designed.

I belonged to a women's group named Women for Harvard. It was a good group of women, mostly young. We raised money to stock a little store that was set up one weekend in December for Shopping with Santa. Children could come in, visit with Santa Claus, have their picture taken, and be taken into a secret store -- no parents allowed -- to shop. Gifts cost no more than a couple of dollars. There was a sample of each item and the rest were wrapped, so the child could surprise a family member on Christmas morning. That was such a wonderful event. Sadly, I don't think they have the store anymore. What they do have is the same group logo that my husband designed for them twenty years ago. It features Harmilda, the town mascot. I really can't believe they are still using a cow logo for a women's group! Anyway, we always had dessert at our monthly meetings, which rotated among the members' homes. One meeting, Julie, that month's hostess, brought out this yummy ice cream dessert. All the women, including me, raved! We had to have the recipe. Julie kind of laughed about that. It's the easiest thing in the world, and you can change up the flavors any way you like. I have made this with mint ice cream, pecans, any combination would be good. For Thanksgiving, I made the original version, Peanut Bar Ice Cream Dessert, one we might call the Buster Bar Dessert if "Buster" wasn't trademarked by Dairy Queen.

Peanut Bar Ice Cream Dessert

40 Oreo cookies, crushed into crumbs

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 gallon softened vanilla ice cream

15 oz. hot fudge topping

2-3 tablespoons chocolate syrup

8 oz. Cool Whip

1 cup peanuts

Reserve about 2-3 tablespoons of cookie crumbs. Combine remaining cookie crumbs and melted
butter in small bowl. Press crumb/butter
mixture in bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan and refrigerate for about 15
minutes.

Layer remaining ingredients as follows, spreading each layer as
evenly as possible:

Oh my goodness, that sounds delicious! We are ice cream lovers around here and like vanilla on our pies. Hubby went to get the ice cream the night before Thanksgiving and LEFT IT IN THE TRUNK overnight! We had to pour it down the drain!That's such a sweet idea about the kids secret shopping -- something similar was done in my son's elementary class (don't remember the year) -- he loved picking out something for mom! And I still have it!

I've just read the ingredients out to my husband, the only thing we aren't sure about is cool whip, haven't heard of it before? Sounds so delicious, will definitely be trying it. Never tried pumpkin, can it be sweet or savoury? xx

funny im not a fan of pumpkin pie either... nut that oreo ice cream cake looks delicious, i bet it was too. Loved the story, and i get to learn something new. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Women for Harvard sounds like a great organization. It's too bad that they don't have the store anymore, because I bet the kids really loved that. I know my kids would. That's really cool that they still use the same logo. =0)

You are KILLING me here! I am definitely going to make this! It looks amazing! I'll have my kids staying here for about a week at Christmas and my son-in-law and husband love this kind of thing. Thanks for sharing this recipe! Looks like a keeper and worth blowing my diet for a little piece!

We don't make pumpkin pie here in Australia. I know a few people who have tried to make it but it doesn't turn out well - we can't buy your orange skinned pumpkins here and there's no canned pumpkin either. The pumpkins we buy are quite watery and I think that's the problem when trying to use them to make pie. I love the sound of that Santa store. What a great idea. Shame it's no longer in existence. Love the look of your ice cream dessert - that would certainly be a hit in this house xx

Haven't thought about a big wheel in a very long time! I loved going really fast and then pulling the hand brake and come to a screaching hault and then spin out .....good times. The ice cream dessert looks wonderful. I would go for the pumpkin pie though....but it would need from scratch made whipped cream.....yum! So many possibilities with the ice cream cake though! OK I will just have both!

O..M..G. I did not need to see that in the morning before my breakfast! Yum! So...hungry...Great story. That's exactly how I think of harvard. That place where I don't know where it is, but it's at the end of the train line!

I think, perhaps, that I am next of kin to your husband and daughter. Seriously. First it was the tea addiction and now the pumpkin pie! But this alternative dessert for your son and you looks pretty amazing. And, I'm a fan of ice cream too. :-)

Yummy is what I have to say about this dessert! My family loves ice cream desserts, too. I make one with a Rice Krispie crust that is often requested for birthdays. I'll have to try this one out on them.

About Me

I'm a Southern girl who moved to the Midwest and never left. I like to read, cook, knit, and garden. I compost. I live in a circa 1902 house, painted the color of sunshine. I like old movies, most kinds of music, and NPR. I have a terrific family and a goofy golden retriever named Alfie.